Years ago, when Yi Shu first learned of the Crossing Adversity Sect's doctrine, he, like most Taiyan Sect cultivators, had sneered at it with utter contempt.
When calamity struck, rather than taking the initiative to seek countermeasures, they chose to pull their heads into their shells like turtles, pinning their hopes on some ethereal, illusory calamity-bearer. It was a completely unfounded, unpredictable variable.
Yet as fellow members of the Ten Sects of the Immortal Dao, both tracing their lineage back to Archmage Tiandu, the Crossing Adversity Sect's legacy had emerged all the way back in primeval antiquity. For it to endure across so many years proved that there was indeed a particular logic to it.
It was merely that outsiders could never glimpse the profound subtleties of the Crossing Adversity Sect.
Today, having arrived at this Great Qi Sacred Dynasty—which seemed to have sprung from the crack of a rock out of nowhere—and witnessing numerous technologies rivaling the pinnacle of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals, alongside a new method completely different from the current cultivation system that could thoroughly upend the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable's foundation in the Xuanhuang Realm...
Words spoken long ago by the Crossing Adversity Sect unbidden flashed across Yi Shu's mind.
Back then, when the great calamity had first begun to manifest, the core leadership of the Ten Sects of the Immortal Dao gathered together to discuss possible countermeasures.
Each sect voiced their own opinions, but the Crossing Adversity Sect alone remained exceptionally passive.
"Gentlemen, as the saying goes, what is fated cannot be avoided. If a bit of struggling could avert it, how could it be called a calamity?" Lu Chengheng, Sect Master of the Crossing Adversity Sect, had sat with nose pointed to mouth and mouth to heart, wearing an air of complete detachment as though none of this concerned him.
"Is that the excuse for your Crossing Adversity Sect scattering those 'World-Observing Divine Eyes' all over the place?"
Xiahou Yan, Master of the Indeterminate Prison and the most short-tempered among them, had snapped back on the spot with a dark expression.
"Xiahou, you do not understand. This is a necessary measure to await the arrival of the Xuanhuang Calamity Crosser," Lu Chengheng said impassively.
"Bullshit Xuanhuang Calamity Crosser! Before the calamity, all living beings will be extinguished! Once everyone is dead, where the hell is this savior supposed to pop out from?" Xiahou had nearly erupted into furious cursing.
"Are you questioning the Archmage's teachings?" With a single sentence, Lu Chengheng silenced Xiahou Yan completely.
"Besides, aren't there still all of you?" Lu Chengheng smiled, then added with profound meaning, "The Xuanhuang Realm is not so easily destroyed. If any cultivation world in this sea of stars can scrape by and survive until the very end, it will certainly be our Xuanhuang."
Hearing this, none of the leaders of the Ten Sects refuted him.
After a brief silence, perhaps to appease the crowd, Lu Chengheng explained briefly: "The doctrine of crossing adversity is no baseless nonsense. Great kalpas, creation and destruction—these are inherently part of the cycle of heaven and earth. Even the great calamity of the Immortal Realm might not be outside the True Immortals' expectations.
"You are all panicking from morning to night, yet look at the Archmage. Has He shown even the slightest disturbance?"
Xuanji, leader of the Taishang Sect who had remained silent all along, finally spoke: "The Archmage's profound power is on par with creation itself; He can walk through the Immortal Ruins as if treading on flat ground. Disasters that would cause the destruction of the Xuanhuang Realm mean nothing to Him. But we are not Him. Brother Lu, if your sect chooses seclusion, I will not stop you. But when it comes to confronting the calamity, you cannot refuse to contribute at all."
Meeting the united gazes of everyone present, Lu Chengheng ultimately nodded and made a compromise.
Yet Lu Chengheng's final words plunged everyone present into silence once more.
"One day, you will all know that we, the Crossing Adversity Sect, were right."
Now, spanning several thousand years of time, the collective consciousness of the Taiyan Sect, within Yi Shu's body, suddenly recalled those words of Lu Chengheng once more.
Having gained a rudimentary understanding of the principle behind establishing the foundation with oneself, the Dao Transformation Mother Stone factored this variable into its deductions for the future of the Xuanhuang Realm.
The once-clear future suddenly became blurred and indistinct, as if struck by a chaotic storm.
Even with the Mother Stone's computational power, which could be described as miraculous today, it fell momentarily into confusion.
The Taiyan Sect had actually attempted in the past to deduce a new new method capable of upending Chuanfa's system.
However...
Creation from nothingness was entirely different from deducing the future based on existing data.
The Dao Transformation Mother Stone had merely determined that such a possibility did exist. But the probability was far too small.
It was even smaller than the probability back then of Chuanfa surviving the siege of Longevity realm experts.
Aside from the inherent difficulty of creating a new new method, what was even more crucial was Chuanfa's omnipresent influence over the Xuanhuang Realm.
Just as cultivators would gradually forget the disasters of the Xuanhuang Realm and entirely overlook the topographical changes occurring across the realm over thousands of years,
deducing a new new method was not merely the ultimate expression of one's own creativity.
It was, more so, a contest of strength against Chuanfa's influence.
Thus, in the deductions of the Dao Transformation Mother Stone—which was acutely aware of what kind of strength the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable wielded today—the probability that a new new method could ever come into being was naturally infinitesimally close to zero.
Yet an event vastly exceeding the bounds of deduced probability had defied all odds and occurred.
In an unknown corner drifting through the void outside the Xuanhuang Realm, within a faction that had only recently come into being:
Not only had a new new method quietly emerged, but it had even progressed all the way to the Golden Core stage!
It was truly earth-shattering, causing even the Dao Transformation Mother Stone's deductions to stutter slightly.
Because based on all currently known factors, there was no way to explain why a new new method could possibly come into existence at this juncture.
It could only be explained by something beyond common logic, a variable outside all parameters—the Xuanhuang Calamity Crosser.
In private, the Ten Sects had also held discussions regarding this Xuanhuang Calamity Crosser.
They reached a near-unanimous conclusion: if such a so-called Calamity Crosser truly existed, they had to be either an outsider from beyond the Xuanhuang Realm or the reincarnation of a mighty expert.
For a native cultivator who grew up relying solely on their own strength to turn back the collapsing heavens...
It was completely impossible.
No matter how peerless a genius they were, it could not be done.
The Xuanhuang Realm's current environment could no longer provide the soil or foundation to cultivate someone capable of standing against the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable.
"Just what is the origin of this Faceless Holy Emperor of Great Qi?"
At this moment, within the mind of Yi Shu—or rather, the Taiyan Sect—every trace of contempt had vanished completely.
Instead, they regarded the Great Qi Sacred Dynasty as an equal, or perhaps even an entity one tier above themselves.
And they were genuinely calculating the possibility of forming an alliance with Great Qi.
As one of the former rulers of the Xuanhuang Realm, now confined solely to the Taixuan pocket world by the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable's Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals, it was impossible for the Taiyan Sect not to harbor resentment.
Even though they no longer needed territory or material resources, the fact that what had once belonged to them had been stripped away left a grievance that lingered like a nightmare within the Taiyan Sect's consciousness, refusing to dissipate.
"In the past, sects like Dadao and Taishang seemingly opposed the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals on the surface, but in truth, they threw in their lot with them long ago, becoming no different from Chuanfa's running dogs.
"Yet just like us, they probably have not fully submitted either. All they lack is an opportunity."
And the emergence of the Great Qi Sacred Dynasty—particularly the advent of this new new method—allowed the Taiyan Sect to see that glimmer of hope.
Nevertheless, as a sect that had survived since the ancient calamity,
they remained cautious in the extreme regarding any decision that would determine their fate.
Chapter 1200